With 21 years as a creative professional, 13 industry awards and both agency and in-house experience, I bring a wealth of knowledge to the table. I have built in-house agencies from the ground up (Cox Media Group - 12 years), led agency teams on major brand accounts and traveled the country as a strategic creative partner to my clients. I have deep experience with sales support, from pitching to closing. My brand experience includes creation, brand refreshes and transitions for brand acquisitions.
The Ford Motor Company Foundation provides resources and charitable contributions to numerous non-profit agencies and charities in Atlanta. With the outbreak of COVID-19, they wanted to demonstrate how their charitable contributions helped organizations like the Atlanta Community Food Bank "weather the storm."
I developed and scripted four long-form videos that helped tell these stories. I also directed the videos, both during production and during the post-production edit.
This is an example of just one of those videos for The Atlanta Community Food Bank.
Broadcast, VideoThis is an example of AT&T prospect email marketing.
I was responsible for the creative direction for monthly promos, remarketing and trigger email campaigns. I worked very closely with the AT&T national branding team in Los Angeles to transition the design of email campaigns to correspond with three brand "refreshes" that occurred over the course of 18 months.
I also traveled to New York and Los Angeles to attend annual client/agency meetings and worked directly with their teams to help transition the DIRECTV branding into the AT&T global brand.
Email MarketingAudi Atlanta is part of the Jim Ellis Automotive Group, and of the oldest, largest and most respected auto dealership groups in Georgia.
As part of the Comcast/Effectv Southeast Regional team, I am responsible for the broadcast creative for this account. Audi Atlanta (and Audi Marietta) wanted to create commercials that felt like tier-1 "manufacturer" brand commercials.
I utilized Audi running footage along with footage shot at the dealership to tell their story.
VideoThis was an editing and script writing job that I performed for Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to promote their series of films "in concert", with this commercial promoting Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Video, BroadcastI was the Creative Director for this TV spot for ShelfGenie. It was designed so that franchisees could place their contact information on the end card of the commercial.
My roles and responsibilities included concepting, script writing, auditioning and hiring actors, styling of the kitchen on location, and directing the talent during the filming. The titling and music was done by an agency in post-production.
video, TVExample of 2017 DIRECTV prospect email.
I was responsible for the creative direction of promos, triggers and remarketing campaigns for DIRECTV prospect email segments since Q1 of 2017.
My role also included the brand transition of DIRECTV into the AT&T brand (DIRECTV was acquired by AT&T in 2016). This involved a phased creative transition from Q1 to Q3, slowly integrating DIRECTV into the brand colors, styling and font families of AT&T.
Email MarketingI acted as both Project Manager and Creative Director for the marketing team at ShelfGenie. I managed the agency that designed and built the site, working directly with their Project Mangers, Developers and creative team to enhance the user experience and align their work with the ShelfGenie brand.
Additional tasks included direction on two video shoots and seven photo shoots, redesign of various pages for UI enhancements, content creation in Drupal and management of internal creative team.
2010 IAC Outstanding Web Site - McDonald's McCafe Barista Challenge
I was the Creative Director for this interactive game we created for McDonald's agency (as a white label partner service). Our team produced everything from the original art to the Flash coding. Unfortunately, Flash is no longer supported by any browsers as of 2020, so I cannot provide an interactive gameplay demonstration. However, you can view a segment of the gameplay in the video link provided here.
Interactive, Flash, Games-------------
As the Creative Director for this account, I directed the design and implementation of email campaigns and digital advertising. We worked closely with client to optimize the campaigns using A/B testing, multivariate testing and direct response vehicles to assist in their fund-raising endeavors.
displayAn example of print and digital ads that my team (AdStudio) created for Pike Nurseries.
AdvertisingJim Ellis Automotive is one of the oldest and most respected family-owned automotive dealerships in Atlanta. I produced several commercials for Jim Ellis, with this example promoting the Jim Ellis Expressway, their interactive sales product for new and pre-owned vehicles.
Broadcast, Video, TVThis 30-second commercial was designed to reach a targeted demographic of baby boomers, many of whom spent their leisure time playing cards. Its familiarity and light-hearted approach to a serious subject helps to move the viewer past the awareness phase and towards a decision.
Broadcast, Video, TVLance Simmons – IT Director, MailChimp
“I had the privilege of working with John for 7+ years. John is a truly inspiring leader. He took a diverse group of designers and programmers and turned us into a tight-knit team that flourished under his direction. I learned management and leadership skills that have been vital to my professional development. John continues to be trusted mentor and friend who I greatly respect professionally and personally. Please contact me directly if additional information might be helpful.”
Lance Whitfield – Senior Designer, Avatar Labs
“John is on of the most talented individuals I know. He had an excellent rapport internally with the designers and externally with the market reps for Cox owned properties. Under his management, we became a team and AdStudio was born. Over the years, John’s creativity and leadership, along with smart and decisive decision-making led to many awards and company-wide recognition for outstanding digital creative campaigns.”
Leyda Vega Hughes – Senior UX/UI Designer, Sharecare, Inc.
"John Witte has been my unofficial mentor throughout my creative career. He has always been generous in sharing his advice and personal experience while allowing me to learn valuable career lessons on my own. He is a strong leader and a thoughtful, caring manager. I highly recommend him."
Megumi Diaz – Designer
I was fortunate to have an opportunity to work with John for several years at Cox. He has tremendous amount of knowledge in online advertising - he is a strategic thinker as well as a smart, creative and strong leader. If given the chance to work with him again, I wouldn't hesitate.
Richard Pluhar – Project Manager for financial services at Bluewolf
"John is just one of those people you always enjoy collaborating and working with. What he was able to accomplish with AdStudio is nothing short of astounding. The quality and quantity of work his team was able to consistently produce is truly a testament to his innovative and creative vision, his ability to inspire and leverage the talent of his team, and his unique business acumen. He unequivocally understands the industry and the future of online advertising.”
I'm always open to new opportunities, both full-time and contract. So drop me a line. I look forward to speaking with you!